A good high-top would be great with either long-pant overalls or short-pant overalls. Here’s a nice basic black pair from Common Projects

COCKTAILS

(PB NOTE -We will begin with my Favorite!)

OLD FASHION

The origins of the word “cocktail” are lost to history, but the first definition we find in print comes from an 1806 newspaper from upstate New York. A cocktail is called “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters…” Over the course of the 19th century, the cocktail picked up a number of additions and refinements: liqueurs, fortified wines, various bits of garnish, et cetera. Eventually, some drinkers came to prefer a simpler form of cocktail, the type their grandfathers might have enjoyed, and so they’d ask the bartender to make them an “old-fashioned” cocktail, of booze, sugar muddled into water to form a syrup, and bitters. (Source)

(PB NOTE: using flavored bitters can really spice up this traditional cocktail as well as trying different types of citrus)

GROOMING

It’s time to get rid of the wear and tear of winter with a good hand cream. (Men’s Society)

Reinventing Menswear for Masculine Women and Trans Men

Menswear-inspired fashion for women isn’t exactly new, but masculine-presenting women and trans men still have a hell of a time finding cool threads.

“It’s been part of my story my whole life,” says Mary Going, the owner of Saint Harridan, a clothing company that caters to butch women and trans men. “Standing in the closet when I’m supposed to be getting ready for my kid’s concert at school or somebody else’s wedding, and just hating what my options were.”

Courtesy of Mary Going/Saint Harridan

“I’ve had a lot of experiences just feeling uncomfortable in my clothing,” she adds.

For Going, the tipping point came in 2008, when she had a suit custom-made for her wedding. It wasn’t just the experience of having garments tailored specifically for her, but the feeling of finally wearing a suit that not only fit her body, but looked the way she wanted it to.

So, in 2012, Going launched a crowdfunding campaign for her own label, one that would specialize in clothes for women like herself, as well as trans men looking for high-quality duds.

Saint Harridan

In a way, Saint Harridan is a reaction against how mainstream fashion has consciously feminized menswear pieces for cisgender women.

“What we’re doing is saying, ’I’m being masculine,’” Going explains. “We aren’t making a menswear-inspired suit for a woman; we’re making a suit for a woman’s body and it’s highly masculine. You could wear heels with it if you want to, but that’s not our intention. We’re very intentionally masculine. We’re saying that masculinity is an equal opportunity aesthetic.”

Saint Harridan

Conscious of the limits of gendered language, Going is quick to put air quotes around terms like “women” and “men,” “male” and “female.” The name Saint Harridan itself is a comment on those limits: “If we were to use words like ’stud’ or ’butch,’ we would inevitably represent some people, but leave others out,” Going explains on the company’s website.

“We looked for a word that could expand our options. A ’saint,’ among its many other definitions, is a founder, sponsor or patron of a movement.” As for “Harridan,” Going has reclaiming the word, which means a mannish old woman, and was used as a slur not long ago “to keep women from venturing too far from societal expectations.”

But to re-envision classic men’s garments for female bodies, Going and her team’s task was more complicated than they expected.

“The suit was definitely the hardest thing, because it’s so highly constructed,” Going says. “But all the garments we put through the same process of looking at what works and what doesn’t work, ways to improve the fit.”

Some of the changes were obvious—reducing the length of the jacket, lowering the rise on the pants—while others were less apparent. Differences in men’s and women’s posture, how they walk, the way they hold their arms when standing—all affected construction.

The result is a line of masculine clothing cut for bodies that traditional menswear companies have never considered.

All Saint Harridan’s suits are custom-made, starting at $1,200, and require an in-person fitting at the brand’s Oakland flagship store. But customers can order a number of ready-to-wear dress and casual shirts online, as well as pocket squares, bowties, tie clips and other accessories.

Going hopes to eventually offer more ready-to-wear pieces, including pants, jackets and full suits.

But Saint Harridan isn’t just the story of a particular niche company—it’s also the story of a way of doing business. “I actually kept hoping someone else would start this business!” Going admits with a laugh.

She was no fashion expert going in, although a six-month sartorial boot camp overseen by fashion blogger Sheree L. Ross helped Going get her bearings. Her real strength was in recognizing a need the market wasn’t meeting.

“That’s what I bring to the table—thinking, ’What about this could change to make it more efficient, more cost effective?’”

Saint Harridan

To that end, Saint Harridan is completely crowd-funded: Garments are preordered before going into production (to reduce waste) and are usually made in small batches. Essentially, Going has done for Saint Harridan’s business model what she did for its garments: deconstructed and reinvented it to work for people like her.

There’s an Audre Lorde quote on the front door of Saint Harridan’s flagship store in Oakland: “The master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house.” As the costume of those in power, men’s suits and ties are in a sense “the master’s tools,” but Going is quite literally dismantling and reassembling them to empower people like her.

Saint Harridan

“Blurring the line between the binary sexes is incredibly important,” she says, and can have an impact beyond just fashion.

“We have to work within the context of where we are. When I’m in South Carolina and I’m walking through the airport [in a Saint Harridan suit] I am making a very big statement.”

And a mighty stylish one, too.

You can shop Saint Harridan online or at their flagship store in Oakland, California

As an Austinite I always look forward to the variety of amazing events that this city holds throughout the year. One of the biggest and most world renowned is SXSW.

This year dapperQ, the leading style website for masculine presenting women and trans* identified individuals, will host a panel that will explore queer style as an enigmatic art form that is the new fashion frontier and examine queer style as visual activism that creates positive social change.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of Mr. Mary Going and his incredible crew of “Saints” for this amazing accomplishment. A lot of hard work has been put into this visionary company to get it where it is today. This opportunity will take this vision and style innovation for woman and trans who love masculine fashion to a whole new level.

Saint Harridan has been accepted into Batch 14 of 500 Startups, the Silicon Valley seed fund & accelerator founded by alums of PayPal & Google.

When we applied to the program, we explained that masculine women and transmen have been largely dismissed by mainstream clothiers. They must think we’re on to something. Over 1,000 companies from around the world apply to each cohort, and only 30-35 are accepted, making 500 Startups statistically more difficult to get into than Harvard.

As you know, our team spent 2014 creating “Pop-Up​ ​Shops​.​” We traveled to 15 U​S​ cities, and have personally measured, ​chatted with, and listened to the stories of around 2,000 of you. You ​keep telling us you love our suits for special occasions, but what you really need​ is​ a pair of pants and a shirt to wear in your regular life. ​(​”I need a pair of​ ​pants​​ ​with pockets that ​aren’t skin tight or curvy​!​” -Cal Light, a regular at our​ ​shop in Oakland, California.​)​

That’s where 500 Startups comes in. 500 Startups is a four-month accelerator program that offers ​hot startups a leg-up in ​rapid ​grow​th.​ We started with 500 Startups on July 14 and will be working at their incubator space in San Francisco for the next four months​. (Our ​Oakland Flagship store ​is still open ​on Fridays and Saturdays.​)​

Long story short:
Expect us to be announcing a lot of new, interesting, cool things over the next few months.

Thanks for rooting for us as we root for you!

Geeking out,
Saint Harridan Team

PS: If you want to bump along with us on our journey, you can follow Mary on twitter @mgogoing​.

Day one of our first Pop-Up Shop is finished and the news is fantastic: We did it! We absolutely did it!

We set out to make an impeccable men’s style suit that will fit hansdsomely on women and transmen … and it worked! Person after person came in the store – different shapes, different heights, different weights – put on our trousers and jackets, and looked fantastic!

So, it’s really happening. And for one more day (today!) you can experience it. You can walk into our Pop-Up Shop, knowing you’re our expected customer. You can try on a suit you will love, and it will fit your body. You can experience the beginning of this era we are entering: a time when the clothes you wear validate the life you live.